Inside MMA TV report

Saturday, 10 May 2014 09:59

By Steve Te Tai

***INSIDE MMA IS BACK! This week, we find out why Rampage Jackson stormed off the IMMA set, and Miesha Tate fills in for Bas Rutten as co-host of IMMA and addresses the Gina Carano situation, talks who can beat Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez.

Plus a fighter breaks a long-time streak held by Rickson and Royce Gracie, and a MMA company makes hotshot attempt to set attendance record.

Alexis Davis talks weak game against Ronda and an Olympic Gold medallist is feuding with a promoter not named Dana White

And finally, more MMA with animals, including a fighter’s 20-year feud with a bear. All this and much more, this week on Inside MMA!***

They show clips of Tate’s fight with Liz Carmouche, and she explains Liz’ gameplan was just to stick with her and take it to the ground, so she decided to turn it into a fight and punch her hard.

She has one fight left on her UFC contract so negotiations should be starting any day now. She considers UFC as her home and has a pretty good fanbase, so is excited to see what will be on the table for her next contract.

Final Bell: Bas Rutten vs. Miesha Tate

Bas joins us on the big screen from the Xtreme Couture Gym in Las Vegas.

--Can anyone beat Jon Jones?

Bas feels he can be beaten like everybody. However Jon gets better every time since he learns from his mistakes and always improves. Bas believes that Gustafsson might’ve taken that fight if it wasn’t the for the title, since most judges tend to favor the champion in close rounds.

Tate agrees since in MMA anything can happen. The question is who can beat him? She was impressed by Gustafsson in their fight, but Jones’ performance against Teixeira showed enough to beat Gustafsson in a rematch.

--Is Jon Jones a dirty fighter?

As Kenny puts it, in a typical Jones fight there are more eye pokes than a Three Stooges movie.

Miesha wonders if it is a “dirty strategy” since you get a free warning, and the next time your fingers are out there, it can affect the opponent since they might not want to come into that again. So she wonders if it is strategy or a coincidence?

Bas says Jon is a calm, relaxed, methodical fighter, so because of that, that means he is a dirty fighter. Jon Jones knows exactly what he is doing at every given moment and his fingers were definitely in Glover’s face, and for a long time too. So he’s sorry but has to say yes.

--Can Fabricio Werdum beat Cain Velasquez?

Werdum has won four straight over big names, and he will be coaching against Velasquez in the Latin American version of TUF.

Bas says Werdum beat Fedor, so yes, he can beat Cain also. After his fight against Dos Santos, he focused on his striking and became a much better striker, even beating Travis Browne on his feet. Werdum is the best submission fighter in the heavyweight division. If Cain over commits to ground and pound he could get caught. He should stay out of the guard which will be tough since Werdum is so good in that position.

Miesha says absolutely. It’s anyone’s game and was really impressed with Werdum’s last win over Browne.

UFC Fight Night: Keys to Victory

--Miesha’s Keys to Victory: Matt Brown vs. Erick Silva

Matt Brown has to keep the fight standing using long range punches and neutralizing Silva’s takedowns with the Thai clinch with knees and elbows. He’s very effective at that.

Silva is very unpredictable and needs to keep that with things like his spinning heel kicks to disrupt the timing of Brown’s striking. Take it to the ground while avoiding the clinch, shoot for the legs and get to the ground for a submission.

--Miesha’s Keys to Victory: Lorenz Larkin vs. Phillippou

Philippou needs to use his heavy hitting style to press forward and look to land a fight finishing punch or close the distance with vicious ground and pound which is also very effective.

Larkin needs to stay active on his fight as the more dynamic striker and he needs to use a lot of push kicks and leg kicks and if he can land some solid early kicks he can slow the forward pressure from Philippou and pick him apart on the feet.

Real Wives of MMA

At the MFC fight this weekend, that when Sam Alvey fights Wes Swoffold, they will have their wives in the corner (oddly enough this isn’t at the Dallas Sportatorium.) Ron Kruck interviewed the parties involved.

Mrs. McKey Alvey explains how she’s been with Sam Alvey for over ten years and was with him when he began his career he had nobody and didn’t know anything, So she learned more about MMA and began to learn the duties of the corner person like wrapping hands, etc. and at some point become his regular corner person.

Mrs. Salena Swofford explains how she’s also been with Wes Swofford for ten years as well, but normally doesn’t corner him, other than being cut person at times. It wasn’t until Wes was asked before a fight if he wins who he’d want to take a picture with first and he said his wife. So she was all touched and wanted to be in the corner. She likes to be involved and normally she’d have to wait in the stands and wait for him.

They show clips of Mrs. McKey in action, shouting at Sam Alvey what to do from the corner. (It’s bad enough this guy has to hear all day “put the toilet seat down! Stop leaving laundry on the floor!” then he goes to work and the same woman nags at him “Work the body! Watch for the armbar! Don’t forget to take the garbage out when we get home! Whizzer!! Whizzer!!---chauvinist Steve)

Sam explains that she knows everything he’s good at and she can control him like a video game and works the corner like that.

Wes says she is there for support and knows the gameplan. The best part is that after a fight the first person he gets to see is his wife.

Both ladies train MMA as well. Salena likes the Muay Thai game, while McKey likes the wrestling ground and pound aspects for her.

Sam Alvey explains the worst thing is if he loses a fight, he has to hear about it since that means he didn’t listen to her. (Hooo-boy …. Yikes. Can you imagine if Greg Jackson followed you home and nagged you all the way from your shower to falling asleep beside you in bed, then waking up in the morning to be nagged some more about what you did wrong? It’s bad enough when you take a wrong turn and you’re late to your wife’s niece’s graduation party, imagine what you’d have to hear by leaving yourself open to a triangle choke!----chauvinist Steve)

McKey says it’s hard to see her husband after a win and have to tell him she knows he feels all good about himself and is happy, but he really needs to work harder on these things. (Come on now, is it really that hard for somebody’s wife to completely crush dreams and suck all the pleasure out of anything you do? I thought wives specialized in bursting bubbles and making you feel small and insignificant after an accomplishment.---chauvinist Steve)

Kruck asks each woman separately about a potential fight between the wives and Salena chuckles and says maybe a training session, not so sure about a fight as she leaves that to Wes. McKey sounds more enthused about that idea and says its a possibility but if she does she’s going all the way.

Miesha explains her perspective, as long-time boyfriend Bryan Caraway (and Twitter heel) is also a UFC fighter and they corner each other, that going into a fight being emotional stable is the best part. She and Bryan provide that for each other so that’s all that counts for that situation.

Worldwide Highlights

CES MMA 23: Lincoln, RI

--Rob Font over Tristan Johnson in his 10th straight win

Cage Warriors 68: Liverpool England

--Danny Roberts over Jim Wallhead

GSF:Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

--Melvin Manhoef over Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos. Cyborg announced his retirement after this fight

They show a graphic of notable streaks which would beat out Rickson and Royce Gracie’s 11 straight wins, then Rousey’s 8 submission streak, Ken Shamrock’s 6, and Shinya Aoki’s 4. And all of Bandel’s wins were first round submissions too. (Would be interesting to see him against higher competition)

Glory Highlights from Denver

--Zack Mwekassa KO’d Pat Barry in Pat’s switch from MMA

--Errol Zimmerman over Ben Edwards in the semi-finals

--Errol Zimmerman over “Braddock” Anderson Silva in the finals

This is Errol’s 103rd victory, which staved off retirement (he was running a Ric Flair-like, win or retire angle) with these wins. Afterwards, an emotional Zimmerman, dedicated his win to his trainer who passed away a year ago.

More Cro-Cop

Mirko Cro-Cop will fight Sergei Kharitonov at the Glory show on June 21 in Los Angeles.

Alexis Davis LIVE

Alexis joins us on the big screen from her gym in Dublin, CA outside of San Jose.

This will be a tough fight, and she’s had to improve a lot in her game and Ronda is a dynamic and explosive fighter.

She answers Miesha’s question that she definitely feels she can stop the armbar. She understands that Ronda’s been doing armbars since she was a child, but she’s been doing MMA for a long time and trains with black belts and gets armbarred every day and defends them more than gets put in them.

Alexis says a lot of the MMA game is mental, but being mean-mugged by Ronda doesn’t scare her, just like Jessica Eye did that before too. She respects Ronda even though she doesn’t know her personally. She will push herself every day, and will end up with her hand raised.

Final Bell: Can Alexis Davis beat Ronda?

Miesha says absolutely. The question is what happens when the armbar stops? Alexis is a black belt in jiu-jitsu wit the ground skills to avoid that. Her striking is dynamic. But feels Ronda is still more explosive and fast, and the potential to beat Alexis to the punch.

Tate says there’s been a lot of talk about some new girls coming in (Gina), but personally she would like to see Cris Cyborg against Ronda. She says Cyborg is committed to make 135, win the Invicta belt, come to UFC and beat Ronda, then beat her a second time so no one can say the first was a fluke.

Miesha says she needs a couple more wins before she’s back in title contention. She would love to “welcome” Gina Carano to the UFC. She’s been a fan of hers for an incredibly long time so why not? “I want to fight Gina Carano, it makes sense right?”

She was at the tryouts for TUF 20: 115 pound girls only, and one of the girls from her team Heather Jo-Clark was there.

Quinton’s Rampage!

They show a clip of Lawal-Jackson’s postfight verbal battle. Kenny Rice mocks it as fake and part of their “pro-wrestling training” and denies there was ever any history between the two despite their “grudge match” billing. Ron Kruck spoke with Quinton.

Rampage says he never liked Mo. He put up with him when they had the same sponsor but were never cool, and had an altercation years ago. Rampage says the recent post-fight brawl was his fault. He says he wasn’t told that King Mo was going to come out. He was already upset since Christian Mpumbu said he was going to retire him, and he ended up taking his frustrations out on Mo.

Half the reason he signed with Bellator was because Mo was there. Mo once told him he wanted to retire him, and beat him on his way out of the sport. Quinton says he loses respect for any fighter that wants to fight someone thinking they are older and weaker.

Rampage says he hasn’t trained this hard in ten years and can’t recall when he’s been this motivated to beat someone. Mo has talked more trash all these years.

As for fighting Emanuel Newton later on, Rampage puts it this way, they have the same coach. To fight someone he basically trains with and to divide the gym and everything that goes with it, is that worth it for a belt?

He personally feels Bellator has his back more than in other promotions in recent years (UFC). What he misses about the UFC is Tim Burt watching. He misses seeing Burt and is one of the best things about the UFC. Kruck asks if he misses Dana White, and Rampage looks pissed and asks if he has any other questions. Kruck laughs nervously and says they’ll move on to something else.

As for fighting Tito Ortiz, Quinton says he’s not psychic so he can’t see his future.

Then Kruck asks him if he thinks he’ll be announced for the UFC Hall of Fame soon. Quinton says he doesn’t give a f*** about the f***in UFC Hall of Fame, and walks off the set.

Kenny backs up Quinton a bit saying clearly Quinton only wants to talk about Bellator since they are writing the checks. But if he beats Mo, buddy or not, he would be next in line to face Emanuel Newton for the Bellator belt.

King Mo Lawal LIVE

Mo joins us on the big screen from the ATT gym in Coconut Creek, FL.

Kenny asks Mo point blank if they are just being showmen or is there something personal. It’s personal but more business to him. He’s just focused on beating this dude and getting the title shot. All that trash talk happened in the past, and he’s not worried about the past. He only cares about Rampage in the cage in the future.

Tate wonders if Mo is worried since Newton beat Mo twice, and Newton trains with Rampage. Mo says that doesn’t matter since he got caught in the first fight and doesn’t understand why the judges gave Newton the rematch. His training is also better for Rampage being at ATT than he was for the Newton fight prep.

They show a graphic of Rampage’s last five fights against top wrestlers where he lost to Glover Teixeira, Ryan Bader, Jon Jones, and Rashad Evans, and only beat Matt Hamill. King says his edge in wrestling is big over Rampage. He will be able to takedown or throw him at will. He calls Rampage a brawler, but he is a boxer and will be more technical with his strikes to beat him.

Kenny makes another crack insinuating that this won’t be a real fight since they have pro-wrestling training. King, thankfully unable to see his face and knowing that Kenny is being disrespectful, says of course this is a real fight, and that he did pro-wrestling training but Rampage never did his. As for mic stuff, he and Rampage never got along, and points out to Miesha it was after her fight in Oklahoma City at a club where the beef started between he and Rampage years ago.

Tate does remember that now that it was brought up. She doesn’t remember seeing the actual argument, but does remember that they were all at the same club at the same time.

Friday Finishes

Glory

--Francois Ambang over Raymond Daniels

Tuff N Uff

--Ian Lujan over Tyler Denniston

West Coast Fighting Championship

--Thomas Diagne over Dominic Clark

Cage Warrios

--Paddy Pimblett over Conrad Hayes with a climbing up the cage triangle armbar. Miesha says she’s not sure what his nickname is now, but should change it to “Spider Monkey”

Spar Star

--Ronnie Mugica over Adolfo Dominguez, and Adolfo took a face first Ric Flair bump

559 Fights

--Bryan Franklin Jr. over Christiopher Gottschall

Anderson Silva BACK

Anderson Silva has been officially cleared to return to training since his gruesome leg break against Chris Weidman last year.

Tuff-N-Uff Free Fights

For their 20th anniversary, all tickets will be free to the Thomas & Mack Center in an effort to set an attendance record for an amateur MMA show. This show will feature six title fights and an Invicta contract up for grabs in one fight too (it hasn’t been announced if this contract will be suspended above a ladder of on a pole …)

Henry Cujudo vs. Legacy

Cujudo has withdrawn from this first title fight at Legacy due to “personal reasons”. He’s missed weight in the past and now this. The Legacy President describes Henry as a “heel” but still believes he has great potential but needs to re-examine if he really wants to do this among other comments. The entire statement, as well as Henry Cejudo’s remarks are on the AXS.TV site.

Kenny is impatient with Cejudo and thinks he needs to make up his mind and stop missing weight and cancelling fights. Tate points out he fought six times his first year, but he has potential and now is his time. Kenny says it’d be one thing if he was just some guy, but he is an Olympic Gold medalist but these things take time.

UFC teams with Lion Fights

During international fight week in July, Lion Fights has made a deal with the UFC where the Lion Fights 16 event will take place.

WTF?!

Bas joins us from Las Vegas for this bit.

--Kal Pendrick, former Cage Warriors champ, saw a dolphin washed up on shore and we see pictures of him resuscitating the dolphin and carrying it back into the waves. (I guess he just saw Anchorman 2)

Bas says if you want absolution in your life, save a dolphin and you’ll go straight to heaven.

--First we see a clip from 1997 of a young boy, Ramaga Badov wrestling a small bear. Then we see Badov in 2014, as a full grown man wrestling a bear again. However this bear looks to be the same size as it the bear from the first clip, about three feet tall, in the most unimpressive bear wrestling ever done.

Bas speculates that the original bear they found was a dwarf which is why it never grew after all these years.

--They show a clip of James Gallagher vs. Alex McCook form Dublin, Ireland, where as soon as the bell rang, McCook tapped the mat and the fight was over.

Tate wonders if Gallagher gets the fastest tapout in MMA history. Bas says we don’t know the reason for that, but he better have a good one, because no promoter will ever sign him again.

Upcoming Fight shows on AXS.TV

--May 23. Lion Fight 15

--June 6. RFA 15

So like Bas always says, Godspeed and party on!

I am now on Twitter. So go ahead and follow me athttps://twitter.com/SteveTeTai Here you can see archived links to past Inside MMA reports along with other articles I wrote for the Observer site and some old pictures of Batista before WWE when he was about 330 pounds of solid muscle.